


filled with poison, blessed with beauty and rage

by orphan_account



Series: we're on a quick, sick rampage [13]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Bittybones (Undertale), Bitty Death, Bitty abuse, Coral Bittybones - Freeform, Lamia Bittybones, Protectiveness, Underfell Sans Lamia Bittybones, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-12
Updated: 2019-07-12
Packaged: 2020-06-26 17:17:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,897
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19772842
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: It was Jake's birthday, and you'd promised him a pet. You should have gotten him a telescope instead. You should have gotten him anything else.





	filled with poison, blessed with beauty and rage

**Author's Note:**

> Lamia bittybones belong to vex-bittys on tumblr.

That Saturday had started like any other day, except for one important difference—it was Jake’s sixth birthday. Your son woke up to the smell of blueberry pancakes coming from the kitchen, and you discussed his present with him over breakfast. He’d been begging you for a pet for months, but you had been concerned about whether he was mature enough to care for an animal, as well as whether it was unkind to bring a pet into your home. He had always been a gentle child, never pulling the ears or tails of your friends’ dogs or cats, but you worked out of the home, and Jake had school and then day care, so whatever pet you got would be alone a substantial portion of the day.

You’d stumbled across a newspaper ad for lamia bittybones one day while drinking your morning coffee before Jake got up, and one of those sounded like the perfect solution. The lamia could tell Jake what it needed, so there was less of a chance of improper care, and they were also capable of doing some things themselves. Further, they were supposedly sentient enough to roam the house when you were absent, and could entertain themselves with television, books, or hobbies. Honestly, you couldn’t have built a pet better suited to you and your son’s lifestyle!

So, on Jake’s birthday, you told him that you would take him to the shop to pick out a miniature lamia friend. It would have to be miniature, as the house wasn’t very big, and the large sizes of some of the breeds frightened you a little. Jake was over the moon, already trying to come up with names for his new buddy, even though he didn’t know what type it would be yet. Internally, you crossed the venomous breeds off the list, not willing to invite that kind of danger into your home, but that still left lots of snake-skeleton hybrids to choose from. 

Unfortunately for your internal list, when you’d arrived at the shop, Jake immediately fell in love with the bright striped pattern of the Coral lamia bitties. You’d tried _very_ hard to dissuade him, but one of the lamias in particular seemed to hold his attention completely, even though to your eyes it seemed to have an aloof and unpleasant personality. Jake insisted that this one was “cool,” and that if he couldn’t have the Coral, he didn’t want a pet at all. You had sighed, and made some inquiries at the front desk about dealing with the venom; the shop attendant had provided you with several shots’ worth of antivenom in case of emergencies, but told you that Corals generally wouldn’t bite if treated kindly. You also learned that the lamia would learn to talk over time, as you and Jake spoke to it and taught it your language. Consequently, you traveled home, Jake in his booster seat, the container carrying the grumpy little lamia in his lap.

When you arrived home, you allowed Jake to take his new friend into the living room and play, with your supervision. He seemed fascinated by the lamia’s scales, stroking its tail gently with two fingers as the Coral looked away and acted like it didn’t enjoy the touch. After ten minutes, the lamia chirruped (you couldn’t come up with a better word to describe the strange sound), and flicked its tail away from Jake’s hand. Jake drew back, understanding that his new pet was done being touched for now, but then the Coral slithered backward to lean its head against Jake’s knee. You had to smile when it appeared that the lamia had fallen asleep. Jake pressed a finger to his lips in a gesture telling you to be quiet, and you decided to take the opportunity to grab your digital camera out of your bedroom.

You had just found the camera and turned it on when you heard a shout from the living room. You dropped the camera onto the bed and rushed into the living room, where you saw Jake clutching his hand, crying and bleeding from two unmistakable puncture wounds. _The fucking lamia._ You had left a venomous snake alone with your only child. How had you been so stupid?

Your eyes scanned the rest of the room, locating the Coral cowering under the coffee table, arms wrapped around itself—still close to Jake, less than two feet away. _Too close_. It flinched when it noticed your gaze, and attempted to slither away at your rapid approach. You were faster, though, adrenaline pulsing through your system as your hand shot out and gripped the lamia’s striped tail, yanking it away from your son. You hoisted it to eye level upside down; it tried to twist its body up to your hand, probably to bite again. The Coral looked terrified, and its thrashing was wild and uncoordinated. _Danger. This thing was dangerous._

Fueled by the need to protect your child, you followed your first impulse—you swung the Coral over your head and smashed it down, face first, onto the coffee table. A blunt _thunk_ rang out from the contact, and you distantly heard the lamia’s wail, although the sound didn’t really process into anything intelligible. You repeated the motion again, holding tightly to the Coral’s striped tail so it didn’t get free as its face impacted against the hard wood a second time. A few small white objects now littered the table’s surface, which you recognized vaguely as teeth. Another hard whack of the lamia bitty’s skull against the wood, and a small gold object joined the white ones. The whole ordeal had taken less than one minute, and you were breathing hard from both fear and effort. 

As the adrenaline slowly left your body, the danger neutralized for now, you lifted your shaking hand, the one holding the Coral, to observe its face. Its fangs were definitely gone, and so were most of its other teeth. One of its eye sockets was crushed, and the bone around it crumbled internally, the eye-light having gone out. The ridge of its skeletal nose was also broken, and red blood (or what looked like blood) seeped from the cracked bone there. You couldn’t tell whether it had other injuries underneath its jacket, but it seemed likely. The lamia itself appeared unconscious, but after a few moments it began to stir, pain flashing across its face. You could hardly comprehend the situation at this point, but you summoned what you thought were the right words for this situation. “I don’t… _care_ what happened,” you said, voice shaking. “I don’t care _why_ you did it. I don’t even care if you live,” you continued, and the Coral flinched again, and then winced hard. “If you ever… _ever_ … hurt my son again, I will do this all over again, and I will not stop until you are nothing but dust.” Having said your piece, you dropped the bleeding lamia to the carpet, listening to his whimpers with both horror and satisfaction.

…Jake had seen that. _Oh, God_. 

Jake was still sitting behind you, clutching his bleeding hand, and looking horrified by the entire situation. When he realized he had your attention, he started explaining without prompting from you, his voice trembling. “I thought h-he was asleep, and I touched his head real soft to wake him, and he turned around and bit me!” your child said hurriedly, his tears still flowing from the pain of the bite. You surmised that the lamia had been surprised by the unexpected touch, and thought that the most appropriate response was sinking his venomous teeth into the perpetrator. Either way… the fact remained that the Coral could have killed your only child. Now, without his fangs, he couldn’t hurt anyone anymore. You’d made sure of that.

You rushed to the kitchen, where you’d put down the antivenom shots what seemed like hours ago, and grabbed one to use on your son. It felt like you didn’t breathe at all until you’d administered the shot and the color of Jake’s hand returned mostly to normal. Why the hell had this happened in the minute you’d been gone? If you hadn’t heard, Jake could have died. _Could have died, could have died, could have died_ , your mind echoed, and you felt your body tremble in horror at the thought. You _knew_ you should have insisted on a different type of lamia, or no lamia at all! Anything would be better than facing this terror once, let alone multiple times. You would have felt differently if the bitty had bitten you, but this was your baby, and you couldn’t let this happen again.

“It’s okay now, Jake,” you said, ruffling his hair gently. The swelling in his hand appeared to have receded, and you felt like a mighty hand that had been clamped around your chest had let go. “He isn’t going to hurt you again, okay? I made sure of it. Why don’t you go lie down for now, and then we can have dinner and cake?” you said, forcefully injecting levity into your tone.

Jake seemed placated by this, less afraid, but gave the still-prone Coral a wide berth as he passed it on his way out of the room. As your son went away to his room, you dropped to your knees and wondered if this was what it meant to be a parent—was it really defending your children, at all costs, at _any_ cost? Shouldn’t you have known better than to give in to his request to adopt the venomous pet in the first place? Would he ever forgive you for what the Coral had done to him, or for what you had done to it? Something dark and horrible had woken inside of you, and you knew you would do the same again, if you had to do it over. 

“No… hurt… again…” a weak little voice croaked from the carpet, and you realized that the Coral had just said his first words… It didn’t matter—you could never be sure that he really understood. You weren’t taking any chances, and you wanted the awful thing as far away as possible. It could strangle Jake at night. It could use its skeletal hands to poison your food. You couldn’t trust the Coral, not ever again, not after what had just happened. You couldn't keep it in your house, and you couldn't take it back, not after what you'd just done.

You moved as quickly and quietly as possible to grab a throw pillow from the couch, placed it on top of the supine lamia, and pressed down as hard as you could on the pillow, right over the spot where its upper body would be. You heard little bones snapping and muffled screams, but you kept up the force, and within moments, the sounds ceased.

You removed the pillow and gazed at the sandy remains of your son’s first pet.

_You would quickly and quietly vacuum up the dust, and then you would cry for a long while. You would choose better next time—you would listen to your instincts and steer him away from danger. When Jake woke, you would tell him that the Coral had passed from its injuries, and do your best to never speak of any of this ever again._

**Author's Note:**

> If you got through that, thank you for reading-- I don't know how I feel about this one. Always open for suggestions for new stories.


End file.
